# How prevalent is mold in pipe tobacco?



## AStateJB (Oct 13, 2011)

Cooler, i.e. pipe smoking, weather (I mainly smoke cigars during the warmer months) is quickly approaching so today I was looking through what I have jarred, pulling the lids off a few blends, and giving them a nice deep, loving sniff when I noticed something strange in one. There were a couple small clumps of baccy near the top of the jar being held together by a white substance that looked similar to very small spider egg sacks, for lack of a better description. I've heard that baccy can produce sugar crystals, almost like cigar plume, over time, but I've never seen it myself so I have nothing for comparison... Unfortunately I didn't snap a pic before I messed with it :doh: but from what I've said, what do you gents think? Do I have a jar of moldy tobacco?


----------



## indigosmoke (Sep 1, 2009)

Here's a good picture of what crystals (no one is really sure if they are sugar or what they really are) on some FVF looks like. 



What you describe does not sound like crystals to me so it could be mold. Mold is not that common with pipe tobacco, but certainly can and does occur.


----------



## AStateJB (Oct 13, 2011)

I was afraid of that. Luckily I only noticed it in the one jar. Unfortunately it was a custom blend that was bombed to me.


----------



## DSturg369 (Apr 6, 2008)

Pull out the trusty old magnifying glass and take a closer look next time. Any hair-like substance would be mold. Everything else is all good.


----------



## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

The human olfactory bulb gets no respect. Despite being equipped with a perfectly good sense of smell, humans don't use it much, except to detect the smell of tobacco smoke from half a mile away and go into a panic state. Mold tends to have a very identifiable odor to it, so much so that even a trace of it can destroy the taste of food. It is a smell that is almost impossible to mask, and I doubt that even Latakia or an Altadis blueberry topping can hide it. I'd say that if you can't taste or smell it, why worry about it? Burning a little mold won't hurt anything, as along as it doesn't taste or smell bad -- which it will, probably. Smoke it! If it tastes okay and smells okay, all is well. If it doesn't, ditch it.


----------



## AStateJB (Oct 13, 2011)

That brings me to another crappy point... I never smoked any of that particular blend when I got it so I don't know what it should taste like. I'm sure with a significant amount of mold it would have a very obviously unpleasant flavor, but I won't know if the flavor is off just a little. I can tell you that, after being jarred for a few months, it smells like the liquid sorghum lick my grandfather used to buy for his cattle during the winter... :dunno:


----------



## longburn (Mar 28, 2009)

I've never had mold in any of my pipe tobaccos (knock on wood) because usually they are kept at a lower humidity than cigars are. But if it's mold it might still be saved. How large an area did it cover? If it's just a bit you can probably take that out and everything else will be fine. Just make sure you amputate a generous portion so that you get it all. But i've tasted mold on cigars and if there is a trace there you will taste it. Mold tastes just like it smells in a mildewy shower or bathroom only more concentrated. Try it, if you taste it or if it tastes off to you dump it.


----------



## WyoBob (Mar 6, 2007)

AStateJB said:


> it smells like the liquid sorghum lick my grandfather used to buy for his cattle during the winter... :dunno:


98% of the population has no idea what you're talking about


----------



## AStateJB (Oct 13, 2011)

WyoBob said:


> 98% of the population has no idea what you're talking about


:lol: True... I hate to assume, but I see you're from Wyoming... Lots of cattle country out there! I'm guessing you know what I'm talking about. Ever had baccy that had that interesting aroma?


----------



## BigKev77 (Feb 16, 2008)

I had a jar of LTF that developed mold. It was not appealing in the least.


----------



## gahdzila (Apr 29, 2010)

Josh - I've only gotten mold on pipe baccy once. It was Peterson Irish Flake. In case you don't know that blend, it is very distinct flakes.....looks like sticks of Wrigley's Doublemint chewing gum. I tossed out the flakes that had obvious mold on them, but smoked the flakes that looked ok, and they smoked fine.

Points being - First, to answer your original question, no, I don't think mold is terribly common (particularly if you take precautions - clean your jars really good before filling and sealing them), as this was the only time I've seen it. Unfortunately, yours sounds like mold to me. If the jar isn't obnoxiously stinky, if the mold colony is somewhat isolated, I would carefully try to remove the mold and at least try to smoke the tobacco that looks ok. Of course, if the whole jar is full of mold and it's touching every single strand of tobacco, I wouldn't bother. If you do deem it smokeable, you need to smoke it _now,_ as it is infected with spores and it will eventually come back even if you remove all visible mold.


----------



## longburn (Mar 28, 2009)

WyoBob said:


> 98% of the population has no idea what you're talking about


Lol! I must be one of the 2 % because I know exactly what he's talking about. The mollasses corn and oat feed they feed to cows and horses. Sounds like it's fine to me Josh because mold definitely doesn't smell like that.


----------



## longburn (Mar 28, 2009)

gahdzila said:


> If you do deem it smokeable, you need to smoke it _now,_ as it is infected with spores and it will eventually come back even if you remove all visible mold.


Good point Clifford.


----------



## DanR (Nov 27, 2010)

I had a jar of Kajun Kake develop mold once. It looked like the stay-puft marshmallow man had sneezed in my jar! It created thousands of tiny white "spots" all over the very dark kake. I wasnt going to smoke it, so I just bombed it to Freestoke. He's still kicking, so it can't be all bad... ound:

I'm not sure what caused that particular outbreak, but it's the only problem I've had so far. I'm with the others, I dont think it's very common. I will say, even if you manage to extract the moldy bits, you'll probably never feel comfortable smoking that tobacco, so i'd just throw it out (or send it to Freestoke :lol.


----------



## WyoBob (Mar 6, 2007)

AStateJB said:


> :lol: True... I hate to assume, but I see you're from Wyoming... Lots of cattle country out there! I'm guessing you know what I'm talking about. Ever had baccy that had that interesting aroma?


We fed cattle in Nebraska for years and sprayed molasses on the ground alfalfa before it was delivered to the feed trucks. We'd get a couple of semi truck loads per year and stored the molasses underground with hot water pipes running through it so it would spray well in all sorts of weather. The cattle really liked it (along with the corn flakes we made them.)

I've never had any tobacco that had the aroma, though.


----------



## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

longburn said:


> Lol! I must be one of the 2 % because I know exactly what he's talking about. The mollasses corn and oat feed they feed to cows and horses. Sounds like it's fine to me Josh because mold definitely doesn't smell like that.


On the other hand, I've never heard of it. I think sheep will eat dog shit if you put it in their trough. Nasty creatures. Babe's "mom" in the movie was right: very stupid as well. Did I mention I don't like sheep? I eat veal _because_ of the cruelty...


----------



## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

MarkC said:


> I think sheep will eat dog shit if you put it in their trough. Nasty creatures.


And dogs will eat human feces, part of the reason dogs came to live with humans over the millennia, since there is quite of bit of food value left in it for dogs to work on. For Eskimo sled dogs, it was once a big part of their diet, but today's Eskimo probably feeds them Big Red. (ref. *The Book of the Eskimo*, Peter Freuchen.)


----------



## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

DanR said:


> I will say, even if you manage to extract the moldy bits, you'll probably never feel comfortable smoking that tobacco, so i'd just throw it out (or send it to Freestoke :lol.


I'd be very suspicious of any white areas on your FVF or Reiner LGF. :spy: I'd get that out to me right away. (No problems, since all my tobacco is infected from Dan's Kajun Kake already.)


----------



## imperial Stout (Nov 21, 2008)

What, you don't like bleu-cheese pipe tobacco?

There could be a blossoming entrepreneurial enterprise here somewhere...


----------



## Kevin Keith (Jan 24, 2010)

imperial Stout said:


> What, you don't like bleu-cheese pipe tobacco?
> 
> There could be a blossoming entrepreneurial enterprise here somewhere...


That could be an ACID style baccy!


----------

